Georgia Teens Plead Guilty To Cooking Puppy Alive In Oven

[NedNickerson]

This story actually made me feel sick to my stomach...

http://www.ajc.com/services/content...etpuppy_web1.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=13

Teens plead guilty in puppy abuse case

By D.L. BENNETT
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Two teenage brothers pleaded guilty Friday to torturing and killing a small puppy by baking it to death in a gas oven.

Justin and Joshua Moulder in court on Friday afternoon, Jan. 26, 2007.

Joshua and Justin Moulder

VIDEO:
http://www.11alive.com/video/player.aspx?aid=65660&sid=91135&bw=&cid=3

Justin and Joshua Moulder essentially threw themselves on the mercy of the court Friday, entering a blind guilty plea to nine felony counts. They face up to 90 years in prison.

Sentencing was sent for Feb. 9.

The plea avoids a second trial, which was scheduled to begin Monday with jury selection.

Police contend that in August, Joshua and Justin Moulder broke into the community center at the Englewood Manor Apartments on Dalton Street and brought with them a tan-and-white puppy.

The brothers, police say, removed two shelves from a commercial gas range, put the puppy inside, and turned on the gas.

The Moulders, who lived at the apartment complex with their sister, also destroyed computers and defaced walls at the center, authorities said. They then boasted to friends about what they had done, according to prosecutors.

The brothers' first trial, in December, ended in a mistrial after one juror refused to consider whether they were guilty of hog-tying the 13-pound, mixed-breed puppy with duct tape and stuffing it live inside the searing hot oven.

Beth Haynes of Atlanta, one of six women on the December jury, said the case had holes in it but jurors spent time going over the details and resolved that the two brothers were guilty of the horrific charges against them.

One woman, Haynes said, immediately said she wouldn't convict on any charge and refused to budge over two days of deliberations.

The holdout juror, Elizabeth Stronge, later contended that prosecutors simply didn't give her enough evidence to prove their case, which was largely circumstantial.

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01-26) 12:54 PST ATLANTA, (AP)

Two teenagers accused of duct-taping a puppy's snout and paws and cooking the animal alive in an oven pleaded guilty Friday to animal cruelty and other offenses.

Prosecutors said Joshua Moulder, 17, and his brother, Justin, 19, broke into a newly refurbished community center, where they tortured and killed the 3-month-old puppy, damaged computers, broke glass and splattered paint on the walls.

The brothers then brought neighborhood children to see the dead puppy and threatened to kill them if they reported it, prosecutors said.

They will be sentenced next month

 

[HighParkLover]

I hope these two idiots get the maximum sentence allowed. This is disgusting and that poor defenceless puppy.... they must of felt like really big men.... assholes!

 

[Soilwork]

Some people just don't deserve the right to live with humans.

 

[Just_Believe18]

These are the type you look out for. Pyschopaths usually start with animals, if I am not mistaken?

But up to 90 years in prison? You get more for a puppy than a human being? Vandalism doesn't stack that many years...

 

[thewaffler2]

this sort of thing makes me lose a bit of hope for society

young men, with their WHOLE lives ahead of them, decide to do something like this... and to think that the government has spent so much on them, their parents have invested so much into them... it really kills me to see this MASSIVE waste of potential.

 

[luminum]

I wonder what the holes were and what the circumstantial errors were. It seems pretty cut and dry that they pleaded guilty.

That's unbelievably awful. What on earth would possess someone to do something like this?

 

[JackFTwist]

These are the type you look out for. Pyschopaths usually start with animals, if I am not mistaken?

quite often yes

 

[CaptainJohn]

I think the punishment should fit the crime. Surely there's an oven somewhere big enough to fit them into?

 

[belamy]

Wow... wow... ...

 

[HarryPotterHimself]

These are the type you look out for. Pyschopaths usually start with animals, if I am not mistaken?

But up to 90 years in prison? You get more for a puppy than a human being? Vandalism doesn't stack that many years...

Three things ALL serial killers have in common: an odd fascination with fire, wetting the bed to a late age, and animal cruelty. That's just sick and fucking wrong, that poor dog was alive when they did it, the image makes me fucking sick. Stick them in an oven and see how they fucking feel, bastards.

 

[NickCole]

These are the type you look out for. Pyschopaths usually start with animals, if I am not mistaken?

Yep.

As a boy George Bush liked to blow up live frogs with firecrackers.

 

[NedNickerson]

WARNING: This article contain GRAPHIC details

More on this story:

http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=9740&pst=438813&archival=1

Opening Arguements in Puppy Torture Trial December 09, 2006 8:54 PM
(WSB Radio) -- Some jurors wiped their eyes as opening statements and testimony got underway at the Fulton County trial of two brothers accused of torturing and killing a puppy.

WSB's Veronica Waters reports Justin Moulder, 19, and his brother Joshua Moulder, 17, are facing a 12-felony count indictment in the August death of a puppy at the Englewood Manor Apartments community center. Police say the Moulders broke into and trashed the complex's community center, even smashing a computer, before killing the young dog. The teens are accused of binding her paws and mouth with duct tape, putting paint on the puppy, trying to set it afire, and eventually killing her by putting her into a preheated gas oven.

Sr. Assistant District Attorney Laura Janssen carried a small stuffed black dog as she told jurors of the puppy's struggle for life. She told the jury of six women, six men that they will actually see the oven in which the dog was killed. The teens, she said, took racks out of the oven to make room for the dog to fit.

"The oven will show the struggle," Janssen said. "You will see the puppy was clawing at the oven wall. You will see the paint claw marks on the wall of the oven."

Defense attorney Tim Owens--a former senior assistant district attorney himself--cautioned jurors that the five children who will be eyewitnesses in the case are unreliable, and indicated that the group siblings and longtime friends may have colluded on their story to blame Justin, "an outsider," in a crime he didn't commit. Justin, he said, is not guilty. He also said the forensic evidence against his client is nil, describing the incredibly detailed investigation of this crime scene.

"Not one of those law enforcement officers, or those crime techs, or any scientist is going to come into court and say that there is one piece, one fingerprint, one shred of DNA, one fiber--anything that connects Justin Moulder to the inside of that community center, to anything found in the community center, or the dog. Not one," Owens said.

Kevin Schumaker, Joshua Moulder's lawyer, agreed that the alleged crime is "heinous, horrible, gut-wrenching." But he compared the upcoming evidence to the notes in a Bach concerto: listen for the small, connecting notes as well as the big ones, he said, which will tell you the whole story and play the song for you. Schumaker told the jury that a stranger had fingered the brothers as the culprits and disappeared, though there was evidence that someone had been in the community center much earlier than the brothers' alleged vandalism. He, too, said the children's eyewitness identifications are unreliable and likely tainted because the brothers already were handcuffed when police asked the neighborhood kids if that pair were the suspects.

"Listen to the small parts," Schumaker said. "Listen to the details. Does it make sense? Does it really match up? Or do we just have two young men being served up on a silver platter?"

When the first Atlanta Police officer to arrive on the scene testified as the state's first witness, jurors saw pictures of the torn-apart center, and some were teary-eyed as photographs of the inside of the oven, with the puppy's taped body still on the oven rack, were displayed on a projector. The first three child eyewitnesses, all siblings, took the stand as well Thursday. The judge called a brief recess when one, a 12-year-old girl, began to cry on the stand as defense attorney Owens questioned her truthfulness amid some inconsistencies in her testimony.

==========================================

Jurors see oven where puppy died

By D.L. BENNETT

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/08/06

Detective James Longshore opened the white Hotpoint gas stove where a small puppy spent the final moments of its life thrashing about in searing heat.

As jurors peered into the paint and blood-spattered oven, Longshore toured them through the series of scratches and paint smears the 3-month-old puppy made during its final, desperate tries to claw its way out of the searing oven.

Joshua and Justin Moulder, the two brothers on trial in Fulton County for an act even defense attorneys say was "horrific," sat in their seats, their faces partially covered by their fingers.

The 10-year Atlanta police veteran pointed to an odd paint-free spot. "This is where the nose was actually stuck to the oven," Longshore said.

As he delivered the gruesome testimony, jurors craned forward in their seats. Prosecutors and defense lawyers gathered around all eyes on the stove.

Longshore's gripping testimony wrapped up the second day of testimony in a trial expected to run into sometime late next week.

The two boys, 17 and 19 respectively, are on trial for aggravated cruelty to animals, burglary and criminal damage to property. Prosecutors say on Aug. 21, they broke into and vandalized the community center at Englewood Manor apartments in Atlanta.

Police found broken windows and doors, smashed computers, books strewn about, fire extinguishers discharged and other violence.

In the community center kitchen, police found the dead puppy on its feet and mouth duct taped and stuffed inside the oven.

Five neighborhood children fingered the Moulders for both tearing up the newly refurbished center and killing the dog.

Prosecutors said the boys not only baked the dog to death, they first dumped beige paint on it and tried to set it on fire. The dog's toenails and pads were worn to nubs by its futile clawing at the oven door and walls.

The case has grabbed the attention of at least some animal lovers. Three have even come to the courtroom to watch the proceedings.

Julie Shimkus of Duluth and Amanda Prentice of Lilburn said they came to support prosecutors for taking the case seriously. Both do animal rescue. They said they were hoping to bring others on Monday.

"The punishment needs to fit the crime," Shimkus said. "I'd like to see them duct taped and put in an oven."

========================================

Officers testify on Puppy Torture
December 11, 2006 9:09 AM

Joshua and Justin Moulder

The police officers who responded to a crime scene where a puppy was tortured and placed inside an oven took the stand Monday morning at Fulton County Superior Court.

Joshua Moulder, 17, and his brother, Justin, 19, are charged with torturing a 3-month-old puppy, then killing it by putting it inside a hot oven.

On Friday, a 13-year-old girl took the witness stand and testified that she saw the two boys break into a community center and that they later told her they had cooked the puppy.

But the defense said that the child's account couldn't necessarily be trusted.

Prosecutors have used a stuffed animal to show the size of the puppy as they described in detail, how the brothers allegedly tortured the puppy by coating it with paint before putting it inside an oven last August. The brothers then lured some children to see the crime scene and threatened to hurt them if they told anyone, prosecutors said.

On the stand Friday afternoon, Detective James Longshore with the Atlanta Police Department described to the jury what he saw when he went into the community center where the puppy had been cooked.

"A computer torn up, holes in the walls, paint all over the place and then there was a dead puppy in the oven," said Detective Longshore. "Strong odor, almost making our eyes water before we got into the kitchen, almost nauseating, by the time we looked inside the oven and saw the puppy inside, with legs bound and the muzzle bound."

Prosecutors showed clothing worn by the defendants to the jurors. They said the clothing had paint specks on it that match the paint on the puppy.

The defendants are being tried together but have separate attorneys. Prosecutors said they plan to call 30 more people to the stand before wrapping up their case.

Both defendants are charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, cruelty to children, vandalism, burglary, criminal damage to property, and terroristic threats.

 

[NedNickerson]

More News Video:

http://www.wsbtv.com/video/9799406/detail.html

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/9796419/detail.html

 

[jackoroe]

The jury wouldn't convict based on the time these two were facing, not their guilt or innocence. I can't imagine harming something so innocent as a puppy. Yet we allow unborn babies to be sucked out of a mother's womb and cut up with a scalpel.

 

[cellular]

Im sorry, but that was a sick joke bled. I think this is a sensitive matter to be treated seriously. Anyway, on my side,i live in South Africa and i have heard more disgusting stories than that. A while back there was a news story about a university student who stuffed a live cat into a microwave and fried it to death. He was punished heavily but i think his sentences wasnt even close to the severity of 90 years. There was also one story a while back where children poured gasoline on a rat and watch it burn to death. That was caught on a cellphone video. Sorry, dont have the reference for both stories, but if u do a search, im sure you will find them somewhere on the net.

 

[Grizz]

It's too bad they can't get the punishment they deserve but I hope they get the max. They are just too sick to be out in public.

 

[Marbas]

I'm at a loss to know how to express my true feelings about this story, even within my extensive vocabulary of expletives I simply cannot find the words to express my utter disgust and contempt for those guys.

 

[angedelune]

There are three signs you look for when children are young; torturing small animals, bed wetting, and setting fires. If children exhibit these three signs, then most likely they will grow up to be serial killers or psychopaths.

I work in the medical profession, i've seen it all. I've seen a guy with his knee cap blown off by a shot-gun, i've seen a woman WALK into the ER with a knife in her back, but I think I would weep openly if I saw someone torturing a puppy. :-(

 

[bxrbriefs87]

I hope they rot in hell...

 

[angedelune]

HEY, Atlanta isn't THAT bad.... but that's why I stay in Savannah, much nicer here and closer to the beach